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Week 1 - Introduction
"The Wolf Is Inside Me All The Time"

Background - A Brief History of Buffy Summers

Buffy Summers was Chosen as a Slayer while she was a high school student in Los Angeles. She was approached by her appointed Watcher, who convinced her of her calling. With her watcher's help, Buffy destroyed a nest of vampires at her school, but in the process, her watcher died, and she managed to burn down the high school gymnasium. These events are the basis of the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and take place before the beginning of events in the television series.

At the beginning of the TV series, Buffy and her mother Joyce have moved to Sunnydale to get a fresh start. Buffy was expelled from her old school, and her mother is recently divorced. Joyce is unaware of Buffy's identity as the Slayer; she thinks her daughter is a troubled teenager with a tendency to violence. Buffy wants very much to put her Slayer calling behind her, and become a normal girl again. As she tells her new Watcher,

And later,

Inevitably, Buffy is drawn back in, both from duty and from seeing her new friends at risk. One by one, Buffy's friends find out about her calling, and they begin to work together as a team.

There is much to do in Sunnydale, because the town is built on the Mouth of Hell, which attracts not only vampires but many other evil creatures.

Opening

Each of us has our own image of the "darkness within." For some of us, it is a place of unknown fears. For others, the things that we fear are very specific, things that we can name, or that we would name if only we could speak. The darkness may be a secret that we cannot share. It may be a monster that we fear will devour us.

Most of us learn early in life to keep our darkness secret. This secrecy sows the seeds of distrust; to protect our secrets, we act in ways that are inconsistent with the ways that people know and understand us. As we try to protect our secrets, we may act in ways that directly harm ourselves and others.

Whatever form this darkness takes, coming to terms with our own darkness is a significant part of our spiritual journeys. Until we know and confront our own darkness, it can only cause pain to ourselves and the people around us.

Episode 1.7: Angel

Continuity:

• Buffy is still new in Sunnydale, and still adjusting to the realization that her Slayer calling has followed her from her old school in Los Angeles

What to watch for:

• Secrecy
• Restoring of trust
• Demonstrating trustworthiness

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season1/transcripts/07_tran.shtml

Episode 2.7: Lie to Me

What to watch for:

• Secrecy
• Loss of trust
• Giving of trust

Transcript is available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season2/transcripts/19_tran.shtml

Questions

Buffy is learning the risks of trust. How do we know whom to trust?

How do we tell the difference between lies and truth?

How do we overcome the risk of giving trust after trust has been lost?

What does it mean when we can't share our secrets even with people who already know them?

Angel says that some lies are necessary. Is he right? How do these lies affect trust?

What might have been the outcome for Ford if he had shared his secret? What might have happened to Angel if his secret had not become known?

Buffy, Ford, Darla, and Spike are all righteous in their own eyes. Who is right?

In a later episode, a werewolf named Oz says, "The wolf is inside me all the time." Is it bad to have a "monster within" us?

In what ways has the darkness within another person affected your life?

Is there any way to purge the monster, to be rid of it entirely? If not, then how do we live with it?

Why does Buffy leave Ford in the bomb cellar to be killed by vampires?

Responsive Reading

Metaphor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is written at two levels; it encompasses both the mythological and the ordinary. However, the real story takes place at the intersection of these worlds. Vampires have come to suburbia, and Buffy fights on two levels, both to slay demons and to hold on to some semblance of an ordinary life. Sometimes the line between these worlds becomes vanishingly thin, as is explicitly clear at the end of Lie to Me when Buffy visits Ford's grave.

These two episodes serve to sketch out the mythology of the Buffyverse, especially as it relates to Angel, the "vampire with a soul." The real-world aspect is that Buffy has an attraction to bad boys,and this will play out over the next three weeks of the course as we study darkness, anger, and change.

Closing

Additional Reading

Brock, Rita Nakashima, and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.

Korsmeyer, Carolyn, Passion and Action: In and Out of Control. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Marinucci, Mimi, Feminism and the Ethics of Violence. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Miller, Jessica Prata, "The I in Team": Buffy and Feminist Ethics. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Riess, Jana, What Would Buffy Do? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Stevenson, Gregory, Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dallas: Hamilton Books, 2003.

Stroud, Scott R., A Kantian Analysis of Moral Judgment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

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This course was developed for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh. Copyright © 2003-2005 by Diane Wilson. All rights reserved.